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‘Being mindful’ simply means: being aware of the present experience. We usually get dressed, drink a glass of milk or walk to the bakery in an automatic way, without really noticing it, unaware. 

But we can also live in a more conscious way: aware of each and every moment, as it unfolds. Every object or event, when experienced with full attention, comes to life and starts blossoming, clear and sparkling like never before. In full awareness, all experiences deepen.
 

An effective way to control the stress mechanism is the training of awareness. We become aware of the mind’s tendency to wander off, it's worrying about the past and the future. Then there is a choice.

Either we let automatic and unconscious stress patterns play out, or we chose to be aware of what is actually happening now. While focusing on the present moment, the mind has no time left to worry and so our stress mechanism isn’t triggered continuously anymore.

The training of mindfulness doesn’t focus on the changing of problems, but on changing our attitude towards problems.

We can’t change tension or a stressful mood, but mindfulness helps us to look at painful issues from a different point of view. It encourages us to gently move problems out of the focal point of our awareness.

Mindfulness is the heart of Buddhism. Tradition claims that the Buddha himself spoke the words: ‘Cultivating mindfulness is the highest aim.’ 

The American Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the mindfulness training as it is now being offered in The Netherlands. He worked at the Academic Hospital of the Massachusetts University, where he noticed that patients who suffered from a chronic disease and couldn’t be treated any longer, had no alternatives left.